The present disclosure relates generally to vehicle presence indication, and more particularly, to utilizing an ad-hoc network to request a first vehicle to announce its presence to the occupants of a second vehicle.
Mobile ad-hoc networks include a collection of mobile nodes that form an ad-hoc network without the assistance of centralized structures. An ad-hoc network may be formed when a number of wireless communication devices join together to form a network. Terminals in ad-hoc networks can operate as hosts and/or routers. Thus, an ad-hoc network may be easily reconfigured to meet existing traffic demands in an efficient fashion. Moreover, ad-hoc networks do not require the infrastructure required by conventional access networks, making ad-hoc networks an attractive choice for the future.
An increasing number of vehicles are becoming equipped with telematics systems which may be used for a number of purposes, including collecting road tolls, tracking fleet vehicle locations, recovering stolen vehicles, providing automatic collision notification and providing wireless communication between vehicles. In many cases, the telematics systems include wireless communication devices which allow the vehicles to participate in and form mobile ad-hoc networks. As more vehicles are equipped with wireless communication devices capable of participating in mobile ad-hoc networks it would be desirable to use the wireless communication devices to provide communication between two or more vehicles. Additionally, it would be desirable to utilize the mobile ad-hoc networks to request that one vehicle announces its presence to the driver of another vehicle.